Back home

The only good thing about coming home was that I finally got to see my family and W! And getting upgraded to business class from Hong Kong!

It's always slightly unbelievable finally seeing someone you've missed for so long. You just don't want to let go...

Paris

I thought I'd escape the heat in Paris, but it was even hotter than down south in Lisboa! Still, that didn't stop Sara and I from walking around this huge city.

We started at Montmatre, by climbing up to Basilique du Sacre-Coeur - made more interesting by me losing the map. From there we headed towards the river, passing through Pigalle (and the Moulin Rouge) and the shopping district (see right) to the Avenue des Champs-Elysees. Everywhere we went, there was another impressive building to marvel at.




The search for crepes proved harder than expected, but we found a shop that sold them - then after lunch, passed about 10 more! We weren't about to make the same mistake with ice cream though and stopped for a huge bowl on the Champs-Elysees.




We needed all that energy to climb the Arc de Triomphe (see right - amazing view during the day!), then we stopped for a cocktail and to cool our feet in a pool, before lining up to climb the Tour Eiffel (see above). I'd underestimated how long this took - it was around 11pm by the time we were back down and I was famished! (I guess ice cream, cheese and crepes don't really sustain you for a whole day of walking). Still, it was an impressive sight at night.


The next day we visited Notre Dame, then wandered through the Latin Quarter before I had to leave... It was great to finally catch up on 2 years worth of news with Sara... maybe I'll see you over there again soon.

Lisboa

Lisboa is a beautiful city - large plaças, Moorish castles, hilly (and slippery) cobblestoned streets, without the feeling of being overrun by tourists. The tiled exterior walls are even more stunning here and thankfully, there is finally a breeze!







Apart from gorging ourselves on custard tarts (see right), cheese pastries and other very yummy pastries, we've done a lot of walking - between the plaças in Baixa (the commercial district), up to the castle in the old Alfama district, between the restaurants on the hills in Bairro Alto, around Belem and especially on our day trip to Sintra.


Sintra was beautiful - it used to be a retreat for royalty and still has that well-kept feel about it. We talked our way into the palace (see left) and walked up to the castle, stopping often to refuel on pastries.


Dinner is around 9pm here and we've been filling our evenings with fado concerts (amazingly passionate Portugese singing - see right) and port & cheese evenings. (I'm really starting to like port).

Lisboa is also the place where Mel and I go our separate ways... very sad to leave her :(

Oporto - no burgers, but lots of port

Despite arriving hot and tired in Oporto, we couldn't help being charmed by it. It doesn't have the grandeur of other European cities and appears to be a relatively poor city, but it is still elegant in its own way.



We spent a lot of time wandering up and down the cobblestoned streets (literally - it's very hilly) and it took us until our last day there to really hit the port houses. I'm beginning to quite like the stuff... oh and after visiting a few, our future party plans (and imaginations) grew, ranging from sumo wrestlers and Alice in Wonderland themes to scarves, sports cars and butlers...


As usual, food was a central part of our day. We found a couple of favourite restaurants - one in particular, we ate at every night. We were adopted by a friendly Portugese, Alberto, who acted as translator and provided witty comments at dinner (far right in background). The food here is brilliant though - quite simple, but really hearty food (a nice change after tapas).

The only down side was the heat. It became unbearably hot, with no respite at night. And Lisboa is meant to be even hotter...

Bilbao, San Sebastian - and Dylan

I´m glad we visited Bilbao, although we didn´t see much more than the Guggenheim. You cannot miss it - the huge dog made from flowers out front (see right), or the glass / titanium building itself. I loved the permanent collection, including some steel snake-like structures and the modern art pieces, but didn´t find the Russia exhibition as interesting. We ended our trip there with a very thick, lumpy hot chocolate (the last one I´m trying in Spain), then it was onto San Sebastian...

People end up staying a long time in San Sebastian and I can see why. It has 3 beaches, generally good weather, beautiful mountains framing it and lots of money... enough money for a Bob Dylan concert followed by fireworks and a beach party. It's too resort-y for me to ever want to live there, but it´s definitely a nice place to relax for a while.

We didn´t get up to much here: admired the view from the top of Mt Igueldo (see above), went to the beach (see right), browsed the shops, cooked some vegetables (finally a respite from tapas), met a LOT of Aussies on BusAbout and of course, went to the Dylan concert.

I think the concert disappointed a lot of people, as he didn´t sing his supposedly most famous song, Hurricane (I´ve never considered that his most famous, but I realise now that most do), the sound quality was quite bad and Dylan sang in his usual mumbly way, not sticking to the usual melodies - it made for an interesting game of ´pick the song´. It was still great though and the crowd went crazy for Like a Rolling Stone.

Pamplona: San Fermin - crazy, messy, but fun

We got off the bus in Pamplona and realised we´d missed the party. The bus from Logroño arrived at 9am (we´d woken up at 5am), but the first encierro (run) was at 8am, so our plans for a day trip went out the window - we had no choice but to stay the night and make it to the encierro the next day...

We weren´t quite dressed appropriately (in white tops/pants with red sashes around our necks/waists), so some French guys donated scarves to us - along with a scary-looking (and tasting), yoghurt-like hot chocolate (see above). Once suitable attired, we joined the rest of the crowd, although we were very far behind on the alcohol side of things.

All the families were out (kids and grandparents dressed up too), there were parades of giant wooden dolls (see right), people sleeping or resting on benches and on the grass, packed, noisy bars and lots of sun.

We met some veteran runners - I´m talking 12-22 years of coming to Pamplona - who reunite every year and included a couple who met at San Fermin. We managed to score a shower in a very very nice apartment (see below), then continued on into the night...

The party never stopped - it just got louder and messier. There were amazing fireworks and lots of happy people. We eventually made our way to the Mussel Bar, outside the status which some really stupid people jump off (none that we saw) - there is nothing at all about that statue that screams jump off me, or even climb me! Well, this was supposed to be where all the Aussies, or at least English-speakers, hung out, but we didn´t find many. It was up to Mel´s French-speaking to get us a couple of hours sleep on a couch for the night - and I really needed it!


We made it to watch the run the next day though, although it was hard to see through the barricade. (There was no way I was running - the local girls aren´t stupid enough to, and I wasn´t either). Basically, there was a flash of white legs, a flash of bull´s legs and it was all over in a second. By then, the smell and rubbish was getting unbearable, so we made our way back to our beds in Logroño.

Logroño - I didn´t want to leave

We knew we´d strayed off the main tourist track when we found no one else spoke English. It was a great... until we needed to explain that the hot water didn´t work.

It would be very hard not to like Logroño. Right in the Rioja region (known for wine), filled with cobblestoned lanes that opened onto plazas where people spilled out on the streets and music from buskers wafted through. It was so relaxing, eating cheese, pate, hams and biscuits on our tiny balcony, overlooking the locals below (see right).

I can´t say we did a lot in Logroño (apart from the day trip to Pamplona - see other post). Still, food, wine and wandering through town was enough for us...

Valencia - food, food, food!

Valencia was a much-needed change from Barcelona. The didn´t actually do much more than eat, rest and walk, but somehow (I´m putting it down to the heat) we still managed to exhaust ourselves.

We did the usual foodie things - ate paella, bought hams, cheeses and fruits from the market and hung out at tapas bars. The city is full of little plazas where people spill out onto the cobblestoned streets. (I´m so glad Mel loves food too!)

Valencia´s river got diverted, but they turned this into a huge positive by changing it into a long park, with sports grounds, lots of grass and at one end of the city, 3 bizarre looking white buildings: a science museum (which looks like Darth Vader´s helmet - see above), an arts venue (which looks like an armadillo - see left) and an aquarium (which looks like a huge rotunda with waves on top of it).

Barcelona / Gaudi town - bars, beaches... and of course, the art!

I didn´t love Barcelona as much as I did last time, but it was still amazing.

We stayed at the famous Kabul hostel and have met enough other Aussies to last me the rest of the trip... unlike some others here, we´ve managed to see some sights other than the man-made beach, including La Sagrada Familia (still one of my favourite buildings, even though I can´t really tell what progress has been made in the last 4 years - see above right), the Picasso Museum (fantastic progression of works through his life, despite them moving some of the pieces I wanted to see to the Prado in Madrid!) and the Dali Theatre 2 hours away in Figueres (a wonderful monument to himself in the theatre he had his first exhibition in - see below left).


We finally made it to a salsa club last night, avoiding another night of pub crawls with English-speakers. It was great - some of those on the dancefloor earlier were intimidatingly good dancers, but at around 2am, some guys led an aerobics-type salsa routine and after that, it didn´t matter how you moved...


I´ve had fun, but I loved Barcelona more when it wasn´t the height of tourist season and I had a chance to wander further than a 15m radius from La Ramblas. After about 3 hours sleep, it´s onwards to Valencia and hopefully lots of good food.